Zinc uses

[Deadpool]

31 lbs of my zinc... need to sell or swap . so far unable to do so

Casting with zinc requires pressure or a centrifuge, and often requires keeping sprues molten until the mold cools. Recent advancements include a "High-Fluidity" zamak, which has a lower amount of aluminum (what makes zamak lighter than zinc) but a high amount of copper with small amounts of iron and other goodies. I'm saving my berdan brass for this... and all the pop cans I keep instead of recycle. Those cans are mostly (>92%) aluminum but something like 3-5% magnesium, also. Spent primers I save for this as well.

What's important is how the alloy behaves at velocity, and this HF stuff could become a game changer.

[2wheelDuke]

I've found that zinc worked just fine in my egg sinker mold. I was even able to break the sprues off, since they come out of the mold looking like little super bowl trophies. Grab with 2 pairs of pliers, twist, and the sprue snaps right off.

I've been meaning to get a pyramid sinker mold since those really get lost. It makes me want to cry a little tear for the boolits that will never be when I get hung up on the bottom and lose good lead.

[konsole]

Bringing this thread back because I wanted to talk about any health benefits of zinc. Search the web and you will find plenty of articles talking about the potential? health benefits of zinc, plus zinc supplements are a thing. Here we have zinc WW's that almost all of us try to get rid of, when we could use it as a sort of supplement. Melt the zinc weights down into ingots, flux the melt atleast a couple times to get the zinc as clean as possible, pour the ingots and then use a very fine grit sandpaper on the ingots to collect a zinc dust that could be added to water or food or whatever. Sure, I'm not going to start doing this right away until I've researched it adequately, but its gotta be worth trying right? I don't know the purity of zinc WW's so its smart to play it safe at this point and assume that whatever is alloyed with zinc in the weights is not good for consumption. If this works well in recommended amounts, then it would certainly take a long time to consume even a few pounds of zinc, but atleast it would help make the zinc weights feel like they arent trash to be recycled.

[Deadpool]

... to collect a zinc dust that could be added to water or food or whatever.

It would need to be in the form of Zinc Acetate, Zinc Carbonate, Zinc Oxide, or Zinc Gluconate to be processed properly. Elemental zinc might be digested by stomach acid but probably not completely, and I wouldn't want tiny shards of metal in my system. But hey, some people eat glass and think they need it.

I keep the zinc and make muffin cakes for storage for future use. I figure some day I'll use an A-Max 750gr to mould the nose and tail and use a 3" length for the bore, and make powder-coated zinc rounds (4-5" length) for fun. I'd probably use a centrifuge type pouring system and do 50 at a time with a round plaster mould.. and use wax for making the plaster moulds.. but size it right so I don't need to resize them. An extra .001" if needed can be filled with the PC.

It is believed to possess antioxidant properties, which may protect against accelerated aging of the skin and muscles of the body; studies differ as to its effectiveness.[135] Zinc also helps speed up the healing process after an injury.[135] It is also suspected of being beneficial to the body's immune system. Indeed, zinc deficiency may have effects on virtually all parts of the human immune system.[136]

Zinc deficiency has been associated with major depressive disorder (MDD), and zinc supplements may be an effective treatment.[137]

Zinc serves as a simple, inexpensive, and critical tool for treating diarrheal episodes among children in the developing world. Zinc becomes depleted in the body during diarrhea, but recent studies suggest that replenishing zinc with a 10- to 14-day course of treatment can reduce the duration and severity of diarrheal episodes and may also prevent future episodes for up to three months.[138]

Skeletal chemical formula of a planar compound featuring a Zn atom in the center, symmetrically bonded to four oxygens. Those oxygens are further connected to linear COH chains.

The Age-Related Eye Disease Study determined that zinc can be part of an effective treatment for age-related macular degeneration.[139] Zinc supplementation is an effective treatment for acrodermatitis enteropathica, a genetic disorder affecting zinc absorption that was previously fatal to babies born with it.[51]

Gastroenteritis is strongly attenuated by ingestion of zinc, and this effect could be due to direct antimicrobial action of the zinc ions in the gastrointestinal tract, or to the absorption of the zinc and re-release from immune cells (all granulocytes secrete zinc), or both.[140][141] In 2011, researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice reported that dietary zinc supplements can mask the presence of drugs in urine. Similar claims have been made in web forums on that topic.[142]

Although not yet tested as a therapy in humans, a growing body of evidence indicates that zinc may preferentially kill prostate cancer cells. Because zinc naturally homes to the prostate and because the prostate is accessible with relatively non-invasive procedures, its potential as a chemotherapeutic agent in this type of cancer has shown promise.[143] However, other studies have demonstrated that chronic use of zinc supplements in excess of the recommended dosage may actually increase the chance of developing prostate cancer, also likely due to the natural buildup of this heavy metal in the prostate.[144]

[Buck Neck It]

Health benefits of zinc? I can tell you a little of the health un-benefits of zinc! If you spend an hour or so welding on galvanized steel you will get the "zinc chills". This won't kill you, but it will inspire you to wear a respirator with a good filter regardless of how uncomfortable it is.

The chills generally come in the evening after dinner. You will run a fever and feel like you caught the flu. You will be okay by morning.

I hate zinc.

[Cmm_3940]

I've found that zinc worked just fine in my egg sinker mold. I was even able to break the sprues off, since they come out of the mold looking like little super bowl trophies. Grab with 2 pairs of pliers, twist, and the sprue snaps right off.

I've been meaning to get a pyramid sinker mold since those really get lost. It makes me want to cry a little tear for the boolits that will never be when I get hung up on the bottom and lose good lead.

Makes sense it would work for egg sinkers. The higher surface tension will make it want to be round.

[Deadpool]

Health benefits of zinc? I can tell you a little of the health un-benefits of zinc! If you spend an hour or so welding on galvanized steel you will get the "zinc chills". This won't kill you, but it will inspire you to wear a respirator with a good filter regardless of how uncomfortable it is.

The chills generally come in the evening after dinner. You will run a fever and feel like you caught the flu. You will be okay by morning.

I hate zinc.

Drink milk, or eat some calcium tablets after/during work, even if you are using a respirator.. unless you're wearing one before you arrive and don't take it off until you leave.

[DLCTEX]

I worked for a company welding galvanized panels in an inclosed situation. No respitators or adequate ventilation. Foreman said just drink milk to clean your system. That was 48 years ago, and I'm still kicking' but today I would refuse to do it.

[konsole]

I remember a while back someone mentioning possibly returning the zinc weights to a tire shop to either get some money off a bucket of misc weights or perhaps trade for their bucket of misc weights. Obviously used weights arent ideal because the clip has been weakened and often rusted, but with zinc weights (alteast coww) the zinc part is usually in good reusable condition. I find plenty of zinc weights in a bucket that look like they havent been used. Not as many steel weights in good condition, but there are some.

So I wonder if you where to save all the good condition steel and zinc weights, that look unused, or look like they could be reused, and then try swapping them for the shops bucket of misc weights to get some money off, or make it an even trade. Save yourself a trip to the scrap yard and you may be able to convince the shop to trade your 50-lb of zinc weights (that would only get maybe $5 at a scrap yard), for their full bucket of misc weights that would normally cost you $20-25.

[Rottweiler]

A member here ( Shady Grady) used to offer an even trade by weight for wheelweight muffins. I think he ran out of lead though. He might have another swap deal for you though.

[RogerDat]

I had several ingots of zinc, got a fairly decent price (which I don't recall) Shady Grady would give credit at his online store at a slightly higher rate but with shipping factored in the scrap yard was a better deal for me.

I have a question with ladle pressure casting would it be possible to cast zinc in fishing weight sinker molds or bullet molds with reasonably good results. Ladle with tube spout placed directly in the mold with both held sideways, then tip them both vertical together to pour. I may try using mine to make a weight for my neighbors snow plow he uses on a quad runner. Adding 30# to the blade would help when the snow gets deep. Or as a block that bolts to the back of the lawn tractor for traction. Wife does not weigh enough to keep tractor down on slopes.

[Deadpool]

would it be possible to cast zinc in fishing weight sinker molds or bullet molds with reasonably good results.

Pretty much you either have to use force (pressure injection or centrifuge) to get proper fillout with zinc, or use a zamak alloy using your ladle pressure casting. That still may not work. The way to make it work is to keep a torch on the sprue to keep it fluid while the cavity solidifies, else you will get voids.

Or you can try adding copper, aluminum, iron and nickel and some other metals to your zinc to make a high-fluidity zamak and experiment with that. The two biggest downsides to using zinc or zinc alloys is that they have a much lower BC (having ~63% density of lead) and that they crystallize and fragment on impact without deforming. Other issues are about resizing the zinc boolit and stress relieving it.. You pretty much can't unless resized while over 500F or something silly like that. Obturation is also a big problem (compression of zinc results in crystallization), so filling the grooves will always be an issue, unless you have a healthy coating of PC to allow for that. The high fluidity might have better impact and compression performance, is where I was leading with that.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It makes a good hammer to hit a steel object without damage, either just an ingot or properly case onto a handle in a hammer-head mould meant for lead. It will fracture under a really vicious blow, but plenty of good uses fall far short of that. Why not just use lead? Who would want to deny a metal its role in life?

If you have a boat in salt water, a teardrop shaped chunk of zinc below the waterline will suffer galvanic corrosion in preference to brass or bronze fittings and fastenings. But it is a lost cause if you have both bronze and aluminium immersed.

[Deadpool]

Why not just use lead?

Some might say there exists a practical purpose to having 5000fps for 50yard or closer targets. Target practice in a hurricane? Lighter ammo, 12oz per mag instead of 16oz?

A low BC would be incredibly ineffective compared to lead for anything more than 100 yards. Unless perhaps if zinc was used to encase a perfectly centered tungsten rod, and the total mass equated to a lead boolit.. Then you could argue you're being environmentally sensitive.. even though tungsten carbide can leach.. it isn't as bad as lead.

For me it's more about the science of ballistics. Learning from changing the variables, and alloy is just one of them.

[RogerDat]

For me it is a case of I have a pile of this stuff now what can I do with it? Since most of that bucket of WW's was lead that is the material I'm making into bullets.

So zinc is going to require actual pressure or an open mold design. Hmmm duck decoy anchors maybe? Those are almost like an ingot mold. From looking it appears that many of the fishing sinker molds are pretty open and have no sprue plate so I was thinking one might pour those.

For the neighbors snow blade weight or tractor weigh I was thinking open face mold made out of channel. I might put a couple of bolt in and fill around them. Any reason that won't work or will zinc just not pour well even as an ingot?

[retread]

Commercial Crab Fishermen here make "Zincs" by pouring an ingot with an iron strap through it and welding to the crab pots (traps). Get's rid of electrolysis and prevents a "hot pot" and inhibits rusting of the pot.

[Deadpool]

Any reason that won't work or will zinc just not pour well even as an ingot?

Oh it'll pour into ingots just fine, and you'll probably get a big hole on top as it shrinks and cools, unless you keep a torch on it. When designing your mold, you will need overflow chambers or whatever they're called, that you will need to trim/grind off after casting.

You can build a basic centrifuge, it doesn't have to be highspeed, but your flow channels need to be hot. Definitely you will want splash guards around it.. molten zinc has a non-newtonian fluid property of Shear-Thinning, I believe. A little splash goes a LONG way.. I swear it picks up speed. Nasty burns you will remember for life.

I recommend a bit of reading up on investment casting with zinc. Plaster is cheap, wax is cheap. A spinning rig where you pour into the middle can be assembled from spare parts and wood.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Some might say there exists a practical purpose to having 5000fps for 50yard or closer targets. Target practice in a hurricane? Lighter ammo, 12oz per mag instead of 16oz?

A low BC would be incredibly ineffective compared to lead for anything more than 100 yards. Unless perhaps if zinc was used to encase a perfectly centered tungsten rod, and the total mass equated to a lead boolit.. Then you could argue you're being environmentally sensitive.. even though tungsten carbide can leach.. it isn't as bad as lead.

For me it's more about the science of ballistics. Learning from changing the variables, and alloy is just one of them.

I meant why not just use lead to cast a non-bruising, non-bouncing head for a hammer? The answer to that is better things to do with the lead.

The two factors which make a lead alloy fill its mould to a really precise shape are its fluidity and its weight. Zinc is very inferior on both, and unless die-casting equipment is used to inject it under pressure, I think you would be limited to quite crudely shaped objects. I suspect that even a centrifuge be limited in the precision it could achieve.

[Deadpool]

I suspect that even a centrifuge be limited in the precision it could achieve.

I suspect you may be surprised. A casting wheel found in a place that makes trinkets out of pewter or zamak can get lots of fine detail. Plus, using more copper than aluminum in your alloy improves its fluidity while molten. And copper is more dense than zinc.. but it's the aluminum that drops the ballistic coefficient of zamak.

Pure zinc, no I don't think you'll enjoy the fillout on quality control.

[Geezer in NH]

Wonder if they would make a good fishing weight.

Sure do and legal in NH for under 1 ounce also good for jig heads